Netflix has unveiled the trailer for its upcoming special Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist.
The special intimately explores Boseman’s extraordinary life and Oscar-nominated career, with appearances from Spike Lee, Danai Gurira, Viola Davis and Taylour Paige, the latter two of whom co-starred alongside Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Boseman earned a posthumous Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role as Levee in the film.
“I am Chadwick Boseman. I am an artist,” he says in a voiceover for the Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist trailer. “People call me an actor. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself and actor. I would call myself an artist.”
Acting vet Phylicia Rashad also talks about her special relationship with Boseman as his acting teacher in the late 1990s, when he attended Howard University. Rashad was also responsible for enlisting Denzel Washington to secretly pay for Boseman to attend an acting program at England’s Oxford University.
“He was not going to limit his experience of growth and learning because of cultural differences,” Rashad says.
Chadwick Boseman died last August after a private four-year battle with colon cancer. The Black Panther star had undergone chemotherapy during the filming of Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.
Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist premieres Saturday, April 17 on Netflix.
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
